In the unending erosion of language standards in daily newspapers, this seems to be the weekend to toss homonyms around willy nilly.

Here’s former National Enquirer editor David Perel in a Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined “How the Enquirer Exposed the John Edwards Affair,” describing Edwards’ serial apologizing:

His sincerity was as egocentrically superficial as his infamous $1,250 haircut during the 2004 presidential race.

If this seems harsh, it’s an analysis borne of two and a half years uncovering the former North Carolina senator’s affair while I was editor in chief of the National Enquirer.

Excuse me – don’t you mean born?

Next up: New York Times wag Mark Leibovich’s Week in Review piece, “Massachusetts: Political Kingmaker, Political Heartbreaker.”

Massachusetts, [Boston media consultant Dan] Payne said, has always been overly romanticized by Democrats and ostracized by Republicans. It has produced a caste of wise men on the left (Tip O’Neill, Ted Kennedy,Barney Frank) and bogeymen on the right (Tip O’Neill, Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank).

Excuse me – don’t you mean cast?

C’mon, guys, this isn’t exactly the pluperfect subjunctive.

Which leads me to this:

WE NEED A SYN-TAX

One American dollar for every grammatical error, from misspellings to dangling participles.

Seriously, we could kiss the national debt goodbye about six weeks from now.